


There is Hope in Who we are After we just Have to Find it

by chaWOOPa



Series: The Family we Build in the Meantime [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: M/M, continuation of a previous fic, i did a hit, taakitz baby!angus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 08:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13566915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaWOOPa/pseuds/chaWOOPa
Summary: When Taako gets home and he sees the world in shock but alive, there isn’t the instant wave of paralyzing relief that Lucretia feels or the shock of “it’s finally over” that Magnus and Merle get. He doesn’t get the blinding relief of looking around to realize all of his enemies are gone and dealt with like Davenport or looking around and seeing their family of a hundred years alive and here and not unhurt and not really whole, not yet, but they are all here.Taako doesn’t get that just yet because he has child and his child is not where he is.





	There is Hope in Who we are After we just Have to Find it

When Taako gets home and he sees the world in shock but alive, there isn’t the instant wave of paralyzing relief that Lucretia feels or the shock of “ _it’s finally over”_ that Magnus and Merle get. He doesn’t get the blinding relief of looking around to realize all of his enemies are gone and dealt with like Davenport or looking around and seeing their family of a hundred years alive and _here_ and not unhurt and not really whole, not yet, but they are all _here._

 

Taako doesn’t _get_ that just yet because he has child and his child is _not where he is_.

 

“Koko we _did it_ -” Lup starts and she isn’t corporeal, not right now, but even if she were he has someone more important to be looking for ( _that thought will hurt later, the thought that someone has taken precedence over his sister, over his other half, but it will not be surprising and it will not be taken back_ ) and he walks right past her to where her husband is standing, still trying to comprehend the fact that _they won._ “Koko?”

 

“Barry,” Taako says, his voice a thin mask of calm stretched tight over twitching ears and white knuckles from a grip too tight to be casual on his KrEbStAr. “Barry, _Where is my son?_ ”

 

There is a moment that lasts three years as Barry turns to face Taako and he braces himself to hear the worst news of his life. He braces himself to have made the worst decision in his life because he thought it would be his last. He braces himself to fall to his knees and scream because what else can he do when his heart ( _he loves his sister with all of his heart but he built a life out of the ashes of ruined memories and the love of a father for his son and it did not replace her but he is not quite ready to call her his heart yet. He doesn’t know if he ever will be again, but that hurt can wait until later. That pain can wait until he has seen his_ son) is gone for the second time in his life? He watches Barry turning in slow motion and he waits for the blow to come with held breath and tears already burning in the backs of his eyes and his throat.

 

It never comes.

 

What does come is his name, shouted joyously from somewhere to his right by a voice far to deep to be Angus but makes the tears easier to hold off all the same. He looks over and there is Death, grinning happily, lovingly at him and sitting on his shoulders ( _he is crying but he isn’t making any move to hid it as he screams Taako’s name and shakes with unbridled excitement and exhaustion and any number of emotions that Taako can feel coursing through his own veins and right now, right now all Taako cares about is the relief_ ) is Angus.

 

There is a moment where time seems to sit still and Taako can’t seem to breath as a million things click into place in his brain at once, but he blinks and everything falls away but _Angus_ and he is moving faster than he has in all his life. Wonderland elves be damned, he was _getting to his kid._

 

The only thought in his mind as he feels stinging tears stream from his eyes and he runs towards his boy is that _his baby is alive_. Kravitz helps Angus slip off of his shoulders easily and  he waits there. Taako can tell something wrong as Angus trembles gently, wrapped up in Krav’s cloak, gripping it hard with one hand to keep it there and gripping Kravitz’s pant leg with the other to keep himself upright, but in this moment it doesn’t matter because he is alive and he isn’t going anywhere. Neither of them are.

 

He gets to his baby and he falls to his knees in front of him and he pulls Angus into his chest and the world is reduced to the two of them there in that spot. Nothing but them, the ground beneath them, and the tears flowing from their eyes.

 

“ _Please don’t leave me again, Koko,_ ” Angus says, gripping Taako’s shirt tight and abandoning the cloak to throw his other arm around him to grip onto taako as well.

 

“ _Never,_ ” He says in Elvish, missing the gentle gasps and choked off, quiet cries of shock behind him as he squeezes Angus a little, his eyes closed and face buried in the crook of his neck. “I would never dream of it.”

 

They stay like that for a long minute as Angus’s grip on Taako gradually relaxes and Taako finally pulls back to inspect him for injuries and he resists the urge to bring his hand to his mouth.

 

Angus laughs tiredly and a little wetly as he sways on his feet- _foot._ Taako takes in a ragged breath as Angus asks “Can… Can I sit on you for a little bit? We… We won, right? It’s over? It’s really over?”

 

Taako shifts from where he was sitting on his knees to sitting cross legged and draws Angus carefully into his lap, shooting a look up at Kravitz and hoping he understood it to mean “ _Get Merle over here_ now”. Thankfully, Kravitz was well ahead of him on that and had already motioned for the dwarf to make his way over and the reveal of Angus’s would had only hastened his approach.

 

“Absolutely bubbuelah,” Taako assured gently, running his fingers through Angus’s hair, “We are safe. The battle is over. I know it sounds kinda stupid to ask, Ivaebhin, but are you alright?”

 

Angus nods and rests his head against Taako’s chest. “I am only at a quarter of my hit points, so I think I am okay. Kravitz made sure I wasn’t going to die on you or him today… We really did it, huh, Koko?”

 

Taako nods and hugs his baby a little tighter. “We really did,” Taako sees Merle approach from the opposite side of where Angus is looking, and the words catch in his throat as he asks, “I-I know it has been a-a long, long day, Baby, but…” he gulps, “can you hang on just a little longer so you can tell me and Merle here what happened?”

 

Angus shakes his head and grips the front of Taako’s shirt tight, twisting his torso so he could hide his face in it but he didn’t move either of his legs.

 

Taako spoke softly as he ran a hand through Angus’s curly locks and said, “Th-that’s alright, Bubbuelah. You don’t have to-to do anything you don’t want to love.” He turned his eyes away from the boy and met Kravitz’s concerned ones before looking back to properly inspect the damage.

 

It didn’t look as though someone had ripped it off or it had been sliced off, like when Magnus had taken Merle’s. It looked like the same kind of thing as what had happened to Magnus’s finger and it was, well, it was unnerving to say the least. Taako wracked his brain for a spell that could have done this but he could come up with nothing as Merle whispered a quick healing spell and Kravitz hummed a calm emotions. Angus’s breathing evened out some and his grip on Taako’s shirt loosened slightly, but Taako could feel a wet spot on his shirt growing with every second Angus sat there. “Hey bubbuelah, is okay if I stand up?”

 

Angus immediately tightens his grip and starts trembling again as he says “NO, don’t leave me, _you promised you wouldn’t leave me._ ”

 

“No no no,” Taako rubs circles into his back and reassures him. “I just want to get us somewhere more private, love. I am never going to leave again.”

 

Angus calms a little as Taako continues to rub circles in his back. “Hey Koko?”

 

Taako’s ears perk up and swivel around to face his sister’s voice. Sometime between Angus dropping Kravitz’s cloak and now, Lup had floated over and is finally making her presence known. “You two, and, actually probably three should go get some rest. We can handle cleanup, right now you have more important things to worry about.”

 

Taako sighed heavily, the permission to leave lifting a weight off of him he didn’t know was there in the first place. “How does that sound to you, Ivaebhin?”

 

Angus is still for a moment and Taako is almost sure he has fallen asleep until he nods. “Can… Is your room...”

 

Taako doesn’t want to. He _doesn’t want to go back there_ . He looks up at Kravitz, then turn his head to look for the one person on the face of the planet he wants _least_ to see right now. “You,” he says, looking directly at Lucretia, his voice even but his eyes full of disdain and anger he cannot keep out, “Is my room at the base intact?”

 

She knows enough not to tell him she doesn’t know, instead turning away and raising her stone of Far speech to her face to get a proper answer. After a moment she turns back and nods.

 

“Well,” Taako turns to Kravitz, his face softening immediately, “You got an express ticket there, bone daddy?”

 

Angus giggles a little from Taako’s shirt as Kravitz rolls his eyes and summons his scythe to tear a portal right into Taako’s disaster of a room. “You should stay with them for a little bit,” Lup says to him at the same time a single black feather appears in front of him and drafts to the ground.

 

Taako stands and eyes the falling feather sadly. “Go,” he says before giving Kravitz a gentle kiss on the cheek over Angus and then stepping through the rift.

 

Kravitz sighs and says, “I will be back as soon as possible,” to Taako before the portal closes, leaving Taako and Angus in the room alone.

 

“So what first, Ivaebhin,” Taako asks gently, “Bath, or bed?” Angus doesn’t answer this time, having actually fallen asleep, and Taako smiles gently down at him. “Bed it is.” He says, wading through the mess on the floor to get to his bed. He sets Angus down gently and removes his glasses, then strips him out of his dirty shirt, being careful not to jostle any bruises or scrapes remaining. He leaves his shorts and grabs a giant t-shirt from on the floor, carefully putting it on his boy before moving away to get himself into some sleepwear.

 

He doesn’t even make it two full steps before Angus makes a sound from the bed and Taako is back in an instant on his knees by the bed with his hands on Angus’s face, making sure he was okay. He hasn’t even woken up. Taako chuckles quietly and goes back to getting ready for bed.

 

On the fourth time it happens Taako gives up on the rest of his routine and crawls into bed.

 

Kravitz will arrive ten minutes later with a day’s reprieve to recover from battle to find both of them sound asleep. The rest of the crew will filter in one by one and end up piled around the three of them. Lup will sit up with Lucretia while she quietly sketches this new family of theirs before retiring to her own chambers. Lup will watch over them all as they sleep peacefully for the first time in over one-hundred years.

 

Right now though? Taako brushes a stray lock of hair out of Angus’s sleeping face and wonders how they will be able to recover from this. _He is barely ten_ , Taako thinks to himself. _He is barely ten and I have failed at so much already._ Taako isn’t sure he is ready to face tomorrow, or the next day, or anything after, but he does know one thing.

 

He leans down and kisses Angus’s forehead gently before settling in in front of him and pulling him to his chest. _I am not going to leave you,_ He promises resolutely as the adrenaline drains from his blood and bones and leaves his thoughts muddled and his consciousness sinking into sleep.

 

 _You and I,_ He thinks as he holds his sleeping child close, _we are going to make it anyway._

**Author's Note:**

> *please take my offering of unresolved taako&angus reunion after everything i am trying very hard*


End file.
